Stop me if you've heard this one before: a quirky, pixellated video game breathes new life into the Mario-like side-scroller genre. Or, well, those games used to breathe life, before they became commonplace. Super Meat Boy set this kind of resurgence into motion nearly a decade ago. That's a long time in side-scrolling years.

A peek at this week's Celeste—which favors pixellated designs and squishy, bouncy characters—could make any skeptical passerby sigh in that "Gosh, another one of these?" way. I get that.

But I insist there's something here. In the past few years, we've seen a few super-beautiful, far-from-pixellated platformers emerge with serious fans. Cuphead made a huge splash in 2017 by emphasizing brutal difficulty and hand-drawn beauty. Fans of 2014's Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze swear by its breadth and production values. And 2015's Ori and the Blind Forest injected gorgeous designs and wild platforming maneuvers into a "Metroidvania" adventure.

Celeste doesn't look much like those three games, but its brilliance comes from borrowing their best ideas—and boost-leaping past their pitfalls—to deliver the most intense, memorable, and satisfying platformer yet released in the 2010s. Put Celeste at the top of your side-scrolling shelf, right next to Super Meat Boy and Yoshi's Island.

Tower... climb?

How the heck are we going to get that key?

A great example of a tricky Celeste room, which forces players to figure out, and then execute, a perfect series of jumps and air-dashes. This green gem will refresh any expired air dashes, so you'll probably want to go through it to finish this room.

Red spheres launch your character in a chosen cardinal direction. But you can air-dash out of it, in any direction, whenever you want.

One challenging portion of the game sees a ghost copy your moves, always a few paces behind. In some cases, you'll have to run a certain path just to give yourself an escape option when you backtrack.

Don't walk on, or wall-jump off of, any of that red-and-black stuff. You'll instantly die.

You'll need those yellow feathers to fly through this room.

If Celeste looks familiar, that's because its creators have cut their teeth on some serious pixel-art games before, particularly Towerfall. (We love Towerfall.) On its face, Celeste looks and feels similar to Towerfall, as if retooled as a solo game. Your character design almost looks lifted from Towerfall, as is her default move suite: running, jumping, wall-jumping, wall-climbing, and a cardinal-direction "air-dash."

In the bow-and-arrow combat of Towerfall, this air-dash is used primarily to dodge attacks. Celeste doesn't have any combat, however. As a result, the air-dash becomes something else entirely.

You control an unnamed young woman (if left unnamed, she's called Madeline) on her unexplained quest to scale a massive Canadian mountain. A story eventually plays out as Madeline encounters a friendly fellow climber, a strange old lady, and a few mysterious locals. Before the conversations pick up in length and depth, there's the matter of climbing. Just climb.

The game's opening challenges are simple enough. Enter a room, use the air-dash to effectively "double jump" to higher platforms, and go through an opening at the top-right of the screen to enter the next room. Almost immediately, Celeste teases you with its common "strawberry" collectibles, which are always placed in tricky spots to jump, wall-hop, and air-dash toward. (What's more, you don't get to "claim" the fruit until you finish a series of jumps and climbs and land safely on your feet.) They gently goad you into flexing your air-dash muscles, though the game makes abundantly clear that these collectibles don't affect your progress or unlock anything.

Try before you buy

Celeste began life as a game-jam project over a year ago, and the developers made that version available to play in your Web browser. This version demonstrates the puzzle potential of the air-dash mechanic, but it's definitely missing the twists and level-design diversity of the final game.

But nobody who plays these types of games ignores collectible shinies, a fact that Celeste is very appreciative of. Forget the collect-a-thon bloat of series like Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie. There are truly only two types of collectibles in this game: strawberries, which each world hides roughly 20-25 of, and a very small number of super-secret "hearts," which require clever methods, movement, and sleuthing to uncover. Celeste keeps it simple.

More importantly, the game places these collectibles around its world to tease out something I've encountered in my own real-world hiking and climbing experiences—that the most satisfying traversal comes from a nicely paced mix of tricky-but-doable grabs and "gosh, I am so close" challenges. The satisfaction of picking up another strawberry in Celeste doesn't come from ratcheting your count one higher; it's in stopping once you've landed safely and pocketed the fruit, then looking at the screen to examine the jumps and maneuvers needed to snag it. Like, look at that. Look at what I just accomplished right there.

But simply air-dashing around a bunch of clever corridors wouldn't cut it, which brings us to Celeste's other genius: putting Madeline's increased powers and maneuvers in the game world, not in her required button layout. Each world introduces at least one new thing that Madeline can touch or manipulate whilst climbing, jumping, and air-dashing. The first is a green, mid-air gem that refreshes her air-dash ability; normally you only get to air-dash once per jump, with the ability resetting whenever you land. But if you can jump-and-dash all the way across the screen to a green gem, you can keep that single jump going longer.

Scaling past its platforming peers

Occasional story and dialogue moments strike the right balance between setting the tone and not getting in the game's way.

You won't like this creature when it wakes up.

One of the game's best parts is when this old lady laughs at you; her cackle emanates in a chip-tune "heh heh heh" manner.

Madeline faces off against "Badeline."

The game eventually digs into some heavy subjects—yet its writing and tone make these parts quite memorable.

As Madeline advances, these new elements increase in drastic fashion. A series of otherworldly blocks soon appear, which you can't walk through—but if you air-dash into them, you zip through them in a straight line, which can either quickly propel you where you're supposed to go or send you directly to your death. (Either way, your air-dash power resets when you burst out from the other side.)

Meanwhile, floating red spheres will fling Madeline in a rapid, one-way line if she touches them. She can air-dash out of the line at any time (and will need to escape from it at precise moments for harder challenges), while yellow feathers let her float in whatever direction she wants for a limited time.

Those are but a few of the in-the-world objects that do something really neat: they take the very cool, high-speed superpowers of a game like Ori and the Blind Forest and distill them in a way that removes the backtracking, item collection, level-up system, and controller complication of that game. Players walk into challenge rooms using only one joystick and two buttons, and the room itself feeds all of the exotic complication—and exhilarating "I can't believe I pulled that off" moments.

Throughout my gameplay, I couldn't help but think back to Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, a platformer that fans argue wasn't received as warmly as it deserved when it landed on the Wii U in 2014. I like DKC:TF as a beautiful fulfillment of that series' momentum-heavy exploration, but I am far more smitten by how Celeste lets players walk into a challenging room, size up its insanity, and then manage a series of fast jumps, dashes, warps, and more. I'd start exploring (and dying many times) in a Celeste room, come to grips with how the game wanted me to beat it, then find the right pattern of timing and movement to pull it off—which is a very different kind of "momentum" than the almost automatic roll-and-react movement of DKC.

Somewhat related is my appreciation of Celeste's pixel art style, which players will surely differ on. For my money, the frame- and pixel-perfect movement tech of Celeste lives and dies by reading its large, bold pixels, typically offset in clear, colorful fashion by a variety of game worlds. A tough-as-nails boss-rush platformer like last year's Cuphead can work with expressive, musical art and design, but I only needed about 10 minutes with Celeste to appreciate—and express gratitude for—how the latter uses meaty, chunky pixels for equal parts utility and expression.

You need this kind of art style to believe in its movement tech, and yet the design team at MattMakesGames still infuses so much personality into these blocky forms—whether by animation, by wild screen-filling effects, or by incredibly touching storytelling—that it begins to creep up through your travels in appreciably organic ways.

Nice view up here

Celeste release trailer

Each world in Celeste is made up of roughly 100 rooms, and its seven primary worlds will take a relatively skilled player no less than 30 minutes each to understand and master, should you opt to collect some, but not all, of the worlds' toughest strawberries. (Related: the gorgeous soundtrack, which combines the classical beauty of Final Fantasy VI with the big-beat oomph of Mo'Wax Records, is particularly good at keeping players engaged as they die upwards of 250 times per half-hour world.) Unlockable "B-side" variations of each world add another slate of challenges, and these crank the difficulty and insanity up, should you be that guy at the virtual climbing gym who craves nothing less than a "level 9" Celeste wall. (I'm nowhere near beating all of the B-sides. They're insane.)

Super-hard platformers have exploded in recent years, particularly ones made by enthusiasts using simple toolsets (or Super Mario Maker) for the sake of torturous Twitch and GamesDoneQuick runs. I would argue that sheer brutality is not a suitable measure of quality—and that Celeste understands this in much the same way that Super Meat Boy did when it first blew us all away in 2010.

Celeste does so many amazing things. It organically teaches players while cleverly inserting new game-changing powers into its worlds. It gives players breathing room so that they can play however they want, all while choreographing some of the most memorable platforming sequences I've ever played. It pays homage to classic, tough-as-nails platformers while climbing its own unique path.

Celeste left me breathless at the top of its incredible mountain. I love the view from up here. C'mon and join me.

The good

Side-scrolling, Mario-style gaming hasn't felt so simultaneously familiar and refreshing in years.

A simple control suite is bolstered by wild twists built into the game's surreal worlds.

On topic:I like this design of idea of simple controls and offloading the complexity into the levels themselves. I think that's a brilliant game design feature that could be used a lot more often. If I am thinking about the controller constantly then you made a mistake somewhere, I shouldn't ever think about it.

I'm torn between purchasing this on PC and playing with an XBONE controller or buying it for my Switch.

I dearly wish the Switch had a real d-pad. I worry a little about this game for it because my experience from playing Axiom Verge on my Switch is that double dashing with the analog stick is less than ideal.

I'm torn between purchasing this on PC and playing with an XBONE controller or buying it for my Switch.

I dearly wish the Switch had a real d-pad. I worry a little about this game for it because my experience from play Axiom Verge on my Switch is that double dashing with the analog stick is less than ideal.

I might be in the vast vast minority here but I've found I actually prefer the Joy-Con "d-pad" to a real d-pad.I always know exactly which button I am pressing and they're nice and clicky. When I use my pro controller or go play something on another platform with a d-pad I find myself constantly entering incorrect inputs accidentally now.

Games I'm planning on checking out this year include the Tokimeki Memorial series, also looking forward to The Iron Oath and UnDungeon.

That's if I can tear myself away from Des2ny, which judging by the declining player count (all my friends have dropped off the game), might happen one way or another.

Other great 2D/pixelart games I've played recently have been Hollow Knight and Deadcells. Was very hyped by Cuphead but disappointed by its actual gameplay and longevity, despite its lovely graphics.

EDIT: Devs are still working hard on EITR, having said that they went dark to concentrate on the game recently. Also hope Below will see the light of day someday. With any luck they will be worth the wait, like Hyper Light Drifter was.

One thing I've learned via Super Mario Maker is that I despise platforming based on dying repeatedly. So on that basis, pass. Still looks like a quality game for people who do enjoy this, however, and I wish the devs much success with the title.

Cuphead made a huge splash in 2017 by emphasizing brutal difficulty and hand-drawn beauty.

Sam, I think you misspelled "Hollow Knight"

I'm not that deep into Hollow Knight yet, but nothing about it so far has said "brutal difficulty".

Search deeply and you will find plenty of pain

(EDIT: My main save is 80 something hours to do most all the things except the harder tiers of two repeatable bosses who can one shot you at their higher levels. There are *still* small secrets I keep finding too)

I'm not that deep into Hollow Knight yet, but nothing about it so far has said "brutal difficulty".

Hollow Knight ended up becoming one my most favorite games of all time. I'd greatly suggest setting everything else aside, and playing it from beginning to end.

Though I wouldn't call it brutally difficult. It can put up a good challenge, especially if you're going for the secret true ending, but it won't grind you down into a quivering mass of anxious jelly or anything. It's just pretty tough.

edit: excluding that One Secret Area. Yeah. You all know what I'm talking about.

Cuphead made a huge splash in 2017 by emphasizing brutal difficulty and hand-drawn beauty.

Sam, I think you misspelled "Hollow Knight"

I'm not that deep into Hollow Knight yet, but nothing about it so far has said "brutal difficulty".

You don't really run into anything more difficult than average in that game until the true end content, which is purely optional if you aren't going for that. That stuff is challenging in about the same manner as Cuphead's-- some of it is pure rote timing/execution, some of it is your ability to respond to RNG in attack patterns.

Just downloaded this on my Switch during my lunch break. My final break is coming up and I'm looking forward to getting started! The game also sits at 94 on Metacritic in case anyone's wondering what the general consensus is (which is surprising considering critics are panning harder games in recent months)

Seeing the words "Brutally hard" and "super difficult" in the review help me know this is a non-starter. I play games to relax, not go into controller throwing rage.

And here I am, absolutely loving games that stress me out. To each his own, I guess.

I'm gonna end up getting this one at some point, though for now, I'm sticking to my earlier promise not buy any more games until I beat at least a few of the nearly dozen I've already picked up for the Switch over the last 4 months.

One thing I've learned via Super Mario Maker is that I despise platforming based on dying repeatedly. So on that basis, pass. Still looks like a quality game for people who do enjoy this, however, and I wish the devs much success with the title.

[Edit: turns out all versions have the Assist Mode option built-in ]

Agreed, but it sounds like the Switch port has accessibility options built-in. You can turn on modifiers to make the game easier (Like, slowing down time, unlimited dashes, or even just not dying) to get past the really hard rooms.

I'm definitely not the type of person that enjoys precision platforms, but I'm going to get this on the Switch for that reason so I can still enjoy the story. I feel the slow time feature is perfect as well so I can complete the challenges but get some more leeway in getting the window.

One thing I've learned via Super Mario Maker is that I despise platforming based on dying repeatedly. So on that basis, pass. Still looks like a quality game for people who do enjoy this, however, and I wish the devs much success with the title.

Agreed, but it sounds like the Switch port has accessibility options built-in. You can turn on modifiers to make the game easier (Like, slowing down time, unlimited dashes, or even just not dying) to get past the really hard rooms.

I'm definitely not the type of person that enjoys precision platforms, but I'm going to get this on the Switch for that reason so I can still enjoy the story. I feel the slow time feature is perfect as well so I can complete the challenges but get some more leeway in getting the window.

Accessibility, yes. I'm so tired of "git gud." Yes, I'm old now, with a real job and a family and other hobbies, and my eye-hand coordination has suffered for it. (If it was ever great in the first place...) That doesn't mean I don't enjoy games, still. And I like it if I could continue to enjoy them. I'm not asking for competitive games to be "dumbed down." I know better than to try a twitch shooter or bullet hell now-a-days. Just...

One thing I've learned via Super Mario Maker is that I despise platforming based on dying repeatedly. So on that basis, pass. Still looks like a quality game for people who do enjoy this, however, and I wish the devs much success with the title.

Agreed, but it sounds like the Switch port has accessibility options built-in. You can turn on modifiers to make the game easier (Like, slowing down time, unlimited dashes, or even just not dying) to get past the really hard rooms.

I'm definitely not the type of person that enjoys precision platforms, but I'm going to get this on the Switch for that reason so I can still enjoy the story. I feel the slow time feature is perfect as well so I can complete the challenges but get some more leeway in getting the window.

Accessibility, yes. I'm so tired of "git gud." Yes, I'm old now, with a real job and a family and other hobbies, and my eye-hand coordination has suffered for it.

This reality has set in for me trying to play Fortnite.

I can't kill people even if I start shooting well before they do. I can't believe at one point I played something like Quake III with success and now I can't get a kill even when I have the bead on my enemy anymore

Seeing the words "Brutally hard" and "super difficult" in the review help me know this is a non-starter. I play games to relax, not go into controller throwing rage.

And here I am, absolutely loving games that stress me out. To each his own, I guess.

I'm gonna end up getting this one at some point, though for now, I'm sticking to my earlier promise not buy any more games until I beat at least a few of the nearly dozen I've already picked up for the Switch over the last 4 months.

I need no more temptation!

To each his own, I just think that the "must buy" should be qualified. This is not a must buy for people that don't enjoy that type of game.

It's much more fun to be controversial and get up/down votes based on if people love or hate hard games.

One thing I've learned via Super Mario Maker is that I despise platforming based on dying repeatedly. So on that basis, pass. Still looks like a quality game for people who do enjoy this, however, and I wish the devs much success with the title.

Agreed, but it sounds like the Switch port has accessibility options built-in. You can turn on modifiers to make the game easier (Like, slowing down time, unlimited dashes, or even just not dying) to get past the really hard rooms.

I'm torn between purchasing this on PC and playing with an XBONE controller or buying it for my Switch.

I'd go Switch in a heartbeat.

But man. Dying 250 times an hour would make me re-evaluate my life choices.

I went with Switch. This game is well suited to pick up and play/on the go gaming, there is minimal downtime between deaths, and progression is recorded one screen at a time (so it doesn't feel that punishing - yet). I played through the first half hour over lunch, going to save the rest for the next time I board an airplane.

Agreed, but it sounds like the Switch port has accessibility options built-in. You can turn on modifiers to make the game easier (Like, slowing down time, unlimited dashes, or even just not dying) to get past the really hard rooms.

All versions have this functionality built in.

Would you be able to include that in the review as a side note? From what I've seen, it really makes a big difference!

Seeing the words "Brutally hard" and "super difficult" in the review help me know this is a non-starter. I play games to relax, not go into controller throwing rage.

And here I am, absolutely loving games that stress me out. To each his own, I guess.

I'm gonna end up getting this one at some point, though for now, I'm sticking to my earlier promise not buy any more games until I beat at least a few of the nearly dozen I've already picked up for the Switch over the last 4 months.

I need no more temptation!

I'm in something of a middle point. I love some very difficult games, but there's also some tough ones that I think didn't get nearly enough flack - that emphasize "manliness" and "punishment" past the point they can lead to any kind of fun. These are games that feel frustrating even AFTER you've beaten a challenge that's supposed to feel rewarding.

I loved Ori, hated Super Meat Boy, liked Axiom Verge, hate the idea of Hollow Knight, loved Cuphead. So it's very difficult for me to work out exactly where this game would place. I'm very worried about the precise scale of their difficulty curve, since no story in the world would compel me to complete levels that become so difficult they take 50 deaths to finally beat.

Seeing the words "Brutally hard" and "super difficult" in the review help me know this is a non-starter. I play games to relax, not go into controller throwing rage.

And here I am, absolutely loving games that stress me out. To each his own, I guess.

I'm gonna end up getting this one at some point, though for now, I'm sticking to my earlier promise not buy any more games until I beat at least a few of the nearly dozen I've already picked up for the Switch over the last 4 months.

I need no more temptation!

I'm in something of a middle point. I love some very difficult games, but there's also some tough ones that I think didn't get nearly enough flack - that emphasize "manliness" and "punishment" past the point they can lead to any kind of fun. These are games that feel frustrating even AFTER you've beaten a challenge that's supposed to feel rewarding.

I loved Ori, hated Super Meat Boy, liked Axiom Verge, hate the idea of Hollow Knight, loved Cuphead. So it's very difficult for me to work out exactly where this game would place. I'm very worried about the precise scale of their difficulty curve, since no story in the world would compel me to complete levels that become so difficult they take 50 deaths to finally beat.

So far (I played through the first level and a half during lunch) the difficulty curve is perfect. It feels like the mountain is making you stronger. Challenges are introduced gradually, and the act of passing through past challenges qualifies you to reach greater heights.

Yes, you die a lot, but dying is never much of a penalty. Dying teaches you what not to do. It's part of the learning process.

I also loved Ori and hated Super Meat Boy. I could not wrap my brain around SMB's momentum-heavy movement, and even though I know objectively that its controls are very precise, the game still felt loose and uncontrollable to me.

To me, Celeste is more analogous to Dustforce. Similar art and musical style, similar wall jump and air dash type of gameplay, similar optional goals that add challenge if you want it, similar difficulty ramp. If you like Dustforce, odds are you'll like Celeste too.

I'm torn between purchasing this on PC and playing with an XBONE controller or buying it for my Switch.

I'd go Switch in a heartbeat.

But man. Dying 250 times an hour would make me re-evaluate my life choices.

I went with Switch. This game is well suited to pick up and play/on the go gaming, there is minimal downtime between deaths, and progression is recorded one screen at a time (so it doesn't feel that punishing - yet). I played through the first half hour over lunch, going to save the rest for the next time I board an airplane.

I went with Switch for the same reasons...and I have added the game to my Steam wishlist. I'm hoping to grab it when it goes on sale for cheap, because IME, PC games remain playable for longer than I tend to keep consoles around and functioning.

YMMV of course, but I have a feeling this is one of those games I'll want to come back to over and over.